Garbage disposal lubrication

The garbage disposal in my kitchen was here when I bought the house several years ago. I have no idea how old it is. I have no problem with its operation -- stuff gets chopped up and disappears down the drain -- but when I turn it off and it spins down it makes a horrible noise. It sounds to me kind of like dry bearings. (It is a little loud during operation but I'm not surprised about that.) I've searched the web and this group for advise on lubricating a disposal but found nothing. Any thoughts?

Reply to
Christopher Nelson
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There is nothing to lubricate. The noise may be the implements on the disk that help move the food around to chop. Some units re noise on spin down and I'd not worry about it.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Won't remove jewelry or other small metal objects. Take a good look with a flashlight first.

Reply to
Dan Espen

Water lubricated?

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Hi, When the unit is worn out, there is nothing to fiddle with. Our ISE unit lasted almost 15 years which was replaced with new SS unit. Called ISE customer service, right away warm body answered, when I gave old model no. They gave direct replacement unit nomenclature. Just drop old one off, mount the new one. 30mins. job.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Likely at the end of service. Our lightly used 10 year old disposal started making a similar noise and last week it became noticeably quieter but no longer processed waste. I fished out one blade and the pin. I think the pin was peened and that broke off releasing the blade.

It is an insinkerator which is the brand every store seems to sell. If you search you will see they get poor ratings and the usual failure is the blade attach failing or the bottom seal leaking.

I was just looking for a replacement. I am not buying another insinkerator. Waste King seems to make a good product.

Reply to
George

Are you leaving the water running until the disposal completely stops? If not, you should.

Reply to
missingchild

I cook chicken and rice for my disposal unit. I also finish up each feeding of chicken and rice with a big cup of kibbles. The kibbles so she gets the doggie vits she might need.

Reply to
joevan

Insinkerator has a line of units, some better than others.

My contractor installed model was never quiet and rusted out completely.

I bought a higher end Insinkerator that's lasted twice as long so far and is whisper quiet.

Reply to
Dan Espen

Mine seized up last night. I sprayed WD-40 down inside, but could not get i t to turn. The motor was humming like it wanted to work. I went to bed with the WD-40 seeping into all the moving parts, and this morning it started u p fine. I then squirted some marina axle grease down in there and let it ru n w/o water but with the grease, and the unit is now running like new. Prob ably don't want to overdo the grease as that could lead to clogs but once a year or two is probably okay.

Reply to
staceycochran73

Sounds like the jam cleared. Nothing to lubricate. By self reversing, most jams clear with a couple of on/off cycles.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Hi, And there is little hex key to turn it manually. Jamming is common thing from now and them. Watch what you feed into it. No grease, it is not grease disposer, LOL! No hot water either when running specially when you pour down greasy left over garbage. Again no hot water. As far as I am concerned WD-40 is solvent not a lubricant. Axle grease down the sewer? That is polluting, bad! Are you the one who pour down the drained car oil into man hole too?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I've had problems twice that went beyond mere jamming. There was something stuck in there! First it was dirt from a potted plant. Then it was a little piece of plastic from a nail brush. I blame a cat both times for these things happening.

I was unable to clear the problems myself and had to call a plumber.

Reply to
Julie Bove

I use a small flashlight to see the object. A screw driver or other pointy object can work the object lose.

I can even get my hand in there to remove the object.

As for lubrication, totally wrong.

Reply to
Dan.Espen

Both times, it took the plumber very long to see what the problem was.

I can too but I couldn't feel the object. I did get parts of the nail brush out but... It was hard clear plastic. And the dirt was very small pieces.

Yep.

Reply to
Julie Bove

But it does excel in certain situations. I was about to toss my cross-cut shredder because it continually jammed but WD-40 totally revived it although it took two good and thorough soakings. Fortunately the new WD-40 cans come with a built-in dual-nozzle for broad and pin-point applications.

Now I make sure I run some sheets of scrap paper with motor oil drizzled on it every month or so. The problem comes from adhesives in the incoming mail that build up on the cutting blades. Probably a similar situation occurs with sticky stuff building up on garbage disposal cutter blades.

Reply to
Robert Green

Disagree about sticky stuff on the cutter blades. Take a look in yours. I don't think you're going to see anything in there but shiny stainless steel.

In my case the dishwasher output goes through the disposal. Of course that cleans it in the process.

Then those blades move pretty fast and chop up anything you put in there. A little glue on those blades would be knocked right off as they encounter whatever you put in there.

Reply to
Dan.Espen

Hi, So you are not lubricating but cleaning with WD-40.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Don't own a GD in this house but have owned/repaired a few. It all depends what you macerate in the unit. IOW, YMMV. Any time you have moving parts in a "slop stream" eventually trouble will happen. Some people are very careful about what they run through a GD and others, not so much.

That certainly would delay the formation of RPM reducing gunk buildups.

I'm not conceding that point, just based on some of the extraordinarily gunked up units I've seen. More importantly I'd never underestimate the power of gunk. It gets pretty grotty inside some GD's and even some kitchen drains that I've seen. Gunk accretes. If it's allowed to dry out in layers, over long periods of time, I am confident it could eventually cause problems.

I personally can't see adding more solid matter to the sewage treatment plants so I just use a strainer, and either compost or trash the celery and onion scraps, etc.

WD-40 sure saved my shredder. With all those cutters you'd think it would be self-cleaning and resistant to gunk - but it's not.

Reply to
Robert Green

Yes, I thought that was clear when I described how I fed oil-soaked sheets of paper through the shredder *after* I sprayed them with WD-40 to loosen all the adhesive gunk. I suspect that without that subsequent step, the blades would gum up again in very short order.

Reply to
Robert Green

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